Calcutta: Jaydev Unadkat has featured in most of India's T20I matches lately.

But in order to cement his place in the side, it's important for him to keep performing consistently. It's difficult to come across helpful conditions for bowlers in the limited-overs format today, so varying the length assumes a greater bit of significance, the left-arm pacer feels.

Talking to mediapersons on the eve of India's T20I tri-series game against Sri Lanka in Colombo, Unadkat said: "Variations are the most important part of the game. It's very important for bowlers to vary the length.

"You talk about playing with the batsman's mind and you can only do that with variations. You can see how hard batsmen are going at us in the Powerplay overs in this tournament. So, it is up to us how we come out of it and not allow them to hit. I back myself to do that."

Cutters are also a way of prevailing over batsmen, Unadkat believes. "Cutters suit my plan. If the wicket is suitable for that, I will bowl them.

"Cutters are only useful when the batsman doesn't expect them. So, if the wicket is spiced up a bit with the ball gripping, then definitely cutters are the way to go. In fact, they have been my strength in this format of the game in the past couple of years," he said.

Going back to bowling in Powerplay overs, Unadkat feels creating confusion in minds of batsmen is necessary. "In the past two-three games, batsmen are coming really hard in the Powerplay.

"Now it's important to confuse batsmen and not bowl to their strengths... Depends on us how we do it," the 26-year-old said. Unadkat heaped praise on young Washington Sundar for having done a commendable job so far.

"He is bowling really well. We have bowled together in the past for Rising Pune Supergiant. What benefits us is that how he contains the batsman being an off-spinner.

"In this format the openers just come and try to blast their way through. Washington varies his pace really well and keeps it simple," observed Unadkat.

Indian bowlers fared better against Bangladesh after the hammering they received at the hands of Kusal Perera in the opener against Sri Lanka. Unadkat, however, said the bowlers will only get better as the tournament progresses.

"You can be under pressure 24 times (off a maximum 24 balls) in T20s. We executed our plans well against Bangladesh and it is only going better in the coming games," he said.

On his India comeback, Unadkat added: "I was waiting for this opportunity ever since I started playing the game. These are exciting times for me.

"I have tried to do as well as I could and the next few months will be about how I can improve further."